James Bezan

[Supply Management, June 7th, 2005]

Madam Chair, I appreciate the opportunity to intervene in this important debate tonight. I want to thank the hon. member opposite for chairing our agriculture committee and for the most part the non-partisan work. We do important work at that committee.

It is unfortunate in tonight's debate that there have been some angry meanspirited comments about politics on such an important issue. Here we are again having a take note debate on an agricultural issue. As a farmer, as someone who gleaned part of my earnings from the supply management industry as a cattle buyer and livestock exporter, it is unfortunate that we are discussing the future of supply management and the economic injury it is facing now.I thought the supply management industry was our safest bastion in agriculture.

Farm families are currently facing a lot of stress. The BSE crisis is hurting our livestock producers, including the dairy sector. The grain industry has experienced some very difficult growing and harvesting over the last couple of years. There are depressed commodity prices because of international trade injury. It is unfortunate that we find ourselves here today discussing the supply management commodities and the injuries faced there, not just because of BSE but because of some of the unfortunate competition being faced domestically from other products. We are also talking about the competition that is going to possibly take place because of negotiations happening at the WTO.

I can appreciate the difficult situation for the government in negotiating the new round and trying to get the best deal possible for all Canadian producers. It is important that we get a position that does not trade off one industry against the other. I do not think there is a single agriculture producer in the country who wants to see one sector disadvantaged because of another sector that we have in domestic production.

I want to find out from the hon. member, the chairman of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food, exactly what tools are available to us to protect supply management. More and more products are coming in under derivatives as combination food products. They are slipping in underneath the tariff rate quotas that are in place to protect the industry. The TRQs of course are in place to protect all our agricultural commodities, and other industries as well, but under the current levels that we have negotiated, definitely we are seeing losses. We have already been talking about caseins and caseinates and some of the other products, the butter oils and blends. How are we going to protect the industry so that we do not see a complete erosion of the domestic market for our supply management industries?

[Health, June 3rd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the Lakeshore General Hospital in Ashern, Manitoba normally operates with six doctors to service over 10,000 rural residents, including five first nations communities. Over the past few years doctors have left and the last two doctors have finally retired. Now there are no emergency or clinical services available and patients have to travel over four hours to Winnipeg for care.

Under the government, health care in rural Canada has gone from hallway medicine to highway medicine.

Why has the health minister not used the fabled foreign accreditation program or developed a long term strategy to address the terrible doctor shortages in rural Canada?

[Committees of the House, May 30th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, for clarification, are we talking about the debate tomorrow on the supply motion or is this based on the committee of the whole tomorrow night?

[Agriculture, May 19th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have wasted two years under three agriculture ministers who should have been aggressive on this file and taken action under NAFTA and WTO.

While the current agriculture minister stalls on taking the appropriate trade and legal action, farmers and ranchers are drowning in red ink. Producers are worried about their future if Judge Cebull and R-CALF close the border to boxed beef.

Where is the agriculture minister's plan to farmers and ranchers and to open markets if R-CALF closes the border again?

[Agriculture, May 19th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, it has been a full two years since the U.S. border closed to Canadian beef, cattle and other livestock. Injunctions were demanded by the special interest group, R-CALF. Judge Cebull, who was sympathetic to their cause, has added insult to injury by granting them.

Farmers and ranchers across the country are waiting for the other shoe to drop. On May 9, R-CALF filed for another injunction to ban Canadian beef.

Why has the agriculture minister never aggressively tried to fight these injunctions that are strangling Canadian farmers and ranchers?

[Agriculture, May 17th, 2005]

Madam Speaker, the special interest group R-CALF filed another court challenge on May 9 against Canadian farmers and ranchers. R-CALF is trying to shut down Canadian imports of boxed beef. We already know that Judge Cebull was sympathetic to its cause when he shut down the border 24 months ago and banned the idea of further opening up the border in March of this year.

The Liberal government and the agriculture minister have dithered and delayed in the past on this issue which has devastated farm families across this country. The Liberal ministers of trade and agriculture have not used any of the tools under WTO or NAFTA to reopen the border or tried to overturn the Montana court decision, nor do they have any plans in the likely event Cebull completely shuts down the border again.

I am proud to be part of the Conservative caucus which continues to act on behalf of Canadian farmers and ranchers, and stepping up for them while the Liberals have stepped back. As a farmer, I am glad that the Conservative Party is looking out for me, my family and my friends in agriculture since the Liberals have not.

[An Act to Authorize the Minister of Finance to Make Certain Payments, May 16th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I would ask the hon. member across the way for some clarification.

We are discussing Bill C-48 today which is not the Liberal budget. The Liberal budget is Bill C-43, the budget I thought the government believed in and which contained its plan for the country for the next year.

The Liberals, essentially, have gone to the NDP in a move to hang on to power. Although they think that Bill C-48 is the life preserver they have been looking for, I actually think it is a noose.

Some of the things in this budget were definitely not included in the finance minister's initial budget because they were not deemed important enough back in February when he tabled the budget. What they are doing here is bringing forth a very hastily put together bill that, in their own opinion, would not accomplish the things that the NDP hopes they will.

Does the member honestly believe that the policy announcements being made in Bill C-48 will ever come to fruition? I also want to know if they will accomplish anything. I really think that what is laid out in Bill C-48 is something that will cost our children and grandchildren a pile of money without any real plan. It opens up the possibility of hastily put together programs that will not be administered properly and could lead us to more government mismanagement and corruption.

[Petitions, May 16th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, it is my duty today to present two petitions on Bill C-38. It is interesting to note that one is pro and one is con. It demonstrates that this is a very divisive issue across the country and, unfortunately, rather than uniting Canadians it is dividing them.

[Question No. 120, May 10th, 2005]

Does the government plan to equip Correctional Service of Canada officers with stab proof vests to wear while on duty in dangerous prison conditions?

[*Question No. 126, May 9th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the parliamentary secretary for his answer and I appreciate the fact that the equipment is being made available to the correctional officers. We have many brave men and women who work in these facilities and put their lives at risk. We do not need to encumber them with indecision on whether or not they are going to have a good contract, fair compensation and the ability to do their jobs effectively with the proper equipment.

The parliamentary secretary said that the government is committed to ensuring the safety of the officers and to making sure that there are negotiations, but the fact of the matter is that it has been almost three years that these officers have been without a contract. It is time to step up to the table in good faith. In the response that I received in my enquiry of the ministry, it was stated that negotiations broke off on November 30, 2004. It is time to come back to the table in good faith, settle this, resolve it and use whatever means possible so that our correctional officers and their union know that they are being respected by the government.